Flat Performance Sends North Texas to 67-54 Loss Against Tech

Poor Shooting From The Field And Free-Throw Line Doom Mean Green

Saturday, Laura McCoy moved into second place all-time at North Texas in career three-point field goals (photo by Rick Yeatts)

DENTON, Texas - The North Texas women struggled all day to find their offense, but poor shooting from the field and the free-throw line doomed the Mean Green in a 67-54 loss in the penultimate game of the 2013-14 regular season Saturday at the Super Pit.

North Texas jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the first three and a half minutes of play, but the lead was a mirage. The Mean Green hit only three of its first nine shots in opening that advantage, and the offensive struggles would become clear in the next 10:49, when North Texas scored just three more points.

"We were up 9-0 and seemed in control," North Texas coach Mike Petersen said. "They they started playing harder, and either we didn't have focus or we lost focus, but for the next 35 minutes they pretty much had their way with us."

The loss continued the team's recent trend of following a strong win with a bemusing loss. North Texas beat a 20-win UTEP team then fell flat at Tulsa, and after an impressive win at Rice three days ago, the Mean Green slumped against Tech - a team Rice just beat.

"It's difficult to explain," Petersen said. "For whatever reason, we were not good today."

For the game, North Texas (12-16 on the season and 6-9 in Conference USA) hit just 30.5 percent of its attempts from the floor, including three of 14 from three-point range, and a crippling 46.4 percent from the free-throw line.

Louisiana Tech, meanwhile, heated up. After missing its first four attempts from three-point range, Tech (9-19, 4-11) hit five of its next nine threes to go on 13-0 and 12-0 runs for a 25-12 lead.

North Texas fought back, and, fueled by three turnovers, went on a 10-3 run to close within 28-22. Tech responded and pushed its lead back to 12 before a Laura McCoy three and layups by Alexis Hyder and Eboniey Jeter drew the Mean Green within eight at halftime, 37-29.

But Louisiana Tech widened its lead to 17 points to start the second half, and the Mean Green never got closer than nine points the rest of the way.

Janis Peterson was high scorer for North Texas with 16, followed by Hyder with 13 and McCoy with 11.

Quick Hits

• Laura McCoy had three three-point field goals Saturday to up her career total to 160, moving her into second-place all-time at North Texas. McCoy passed Nicole Thomas (1998-2002) who had 159 threes in her career. Ashley Norris is the all-time leader with 197.

• This was the first meeting between the North Texas women and Louisiana Tech since 2001. The Mean Green is 0-5 all-time against Tech.

• Saturday's loss drops North Texas to 0-13 when trailing at halftime.

Up Next

North Texas wraps up its regular-season schedule Wednesday, Mar. 5, when the Mean Green host Southern Miss at the Super Pit at 7 p.m.